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The lines come on a winder, have straps and look normal enough. But the amount of stretch was so large that I hit the kite into the ground on several turns, just because my arms length pull on one line didn't turn the kite in a tight enough radius. I'm estimating the stretch at 10 mph to be maybe 5%. On an 80 foot line, that's 4 feet of stretch.

Suppose you're a younger person (is that politically correct?) with normal arms for your age and you are flying the kite as a beginner. It's hard enough figuring out how to fly (beginners tend to over react anyway). Then add enough stretch/lag to negate the effect of moving your arms at all.

That is the problem we ran into. I had taught this lad how to fly (barely) on one of my kites and he was making upward turns and keeping the Opium in the air. Then we shifted over to the Thunderstruck on the included lines. He kept crashing. So I took the lines, and I crashed. Not as much of course, but a few times during simple turns.

The kite itself was fine as far as I could tell during straight flight and mild turns. But that line could cause solo flyers to put the kite and the line in a closet and go back to video games.

the idea of bashing them here on the forum without approaching them first is not appealing to me since they are a new company starting out at a hard time in the kite world...

Firstly, it's hardly a bash at all and secondly, all of the major players in Skydog should have enough time in the industry to know that poor lines will reduce even the finest kite to a frustrating experience. If they hadn't heard that their lines are a problem before then now they have (if they read this forum).

Poor lines, chafing straps, storage cases that you don't use.... all of these things don't help manufacturers or retailers.

Poor lines, chafing straps, storage cases that you don't use.... all of these things don't help manufacturers or retailers.

If by "storage cases you don't use" you're referring to the padded cases with the extra pouch for accessories (line set, field instructions, etc.), I disagree. Those cases are better for newbies than a simple sleeve, since newbies don't have a separate kite bag which holds multiple kites and line sets. Such bags only become really useful when you're bringing 3 or more kites out to the field.

I know that I, as a newbie, don't have one, and would find a pouch on my Muse bag for carrying a line set and ground stake to be useful. As with many things, there are trade-offs between what's good for each market segment.

thief,If you read the text under my pictures for the Cross Fire, you will see that I was quite complimentary. I also said the bag was quite sturdy. I made a few suggestions on what I'd like to see as an improvement and 1 small QC comment on a keeper line. These kites are at a higher level than New Tech kites I've seen in the past.

If you read the text under the Thunderstruck in my opening subject to this thread, you will see that I said the kite flew competently. I didn't fly it long enough to say more than that.

If it is okay to post positive comments about kites on this Forum, then it is okay to post negative comments too. In Robert Heinlein's eyes, we should probably all just be Fair Witnesses (Stranger In A Strange Land).

ezme6,As far as prestretching the lines...... the target market for these kites will not know how to do this or may read/hear about prestretching but not realize what that is. And any flyer who has his/her own lines won't bother to use the included lineset at all.

Kitelife,Thanks for providing the link to Skydog. I had previously sent a link to my Cross Fire pictures and comments to Jim Cosca. Although on that kite, I hadn't thought to try the included lineset and just used one of my own. So the stretching "incident" did not occur with that kite.

That is a good looking kite though. I think that Skydog has a very good start and should be praised for starting a new kite company up in today's economy, especially when so many kite stores are struggling or closing.

From what I have seen, the kits do have some very nice construction and the designs are unique and appealing. Factory lines are always a concern with me, it's like putting wheel barrow tires on a Ferrari. Even the best of kites (BMK, Benson, Prism, Revolution etc...) will fly horrible if the lines are crap. I agree, if you aren't going to supply top quality lines such as LPG or Shanti, don't bother with garbage lines at all, just leave them out. It only hurts the industry by frustrating potential new flyers.

The Crossfire is a great kite and can trick with the best of them. The other Skydog kites are also very high quality products and for what they are designed for, work very nicely. The lines ... well, if they fix that then it would be a very positive step forward.

i was not meaning anything bad I was just hoping that any sort of review provided would also be passed along to the manufacturer....I want Sky Dog to do well and since i have not seen nor heard anything about their products was just interested to see if word had been passed along...i am sorry if bashed was too harsh.....

honestly-the pictures-i very rarely visit a Webshots album any more...i find the place to be too troublesome to go through (even tho John I know your pix are great the fact that webshots is involved turns me off) what with the extra advertisements pop ups et al....

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